In vitro cultures of higher plants and fungi as a potential source of bioactive metabolites.

The review presents the results of investigations conducted at the Chair of Pharmaceutical Botany, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, which demonstrated a prospects to obtain biologically active metabolites representative of many chemical groups (furanocoumarins, polysaccharides and lectins, indole compounds, carotenoids) in in vitro cultures of both higher plants and higher fungi (Macromycetes) (mycelial cultures). These cultures can be a potential, rich, new source of metabolites.